Scientornetrics, Vol.

17, Nos 1-2 (1 989) 61 - 70

INFOGRAPHIC ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH PRODUCTION IN SCIENCES.
APPLICATION TO CHEMISTRY, COMPARISON BETWEEN MARSEILLE
AND MONTPELLIER (FRANCE)
H. DOU, P. HASSANALY, L. QUONIAM
Centre de Recherche Retrospective de Marseille UA126 CNRS,
Universite Aix-Marsezlle I11 - 1339 7 Marseille Cedex 13 (France)
(Received September 14, 1988)
Most of the scientific and technical databases contain codes. These codes divide the area
of the database field in subfields. These divisions can be used t o map automatically the
research network of a subject, and to provide its main research poles. The present paper
explains the methodology, and applies it to Chemical Abstracts, and to the analysis of the
research production of various academic institutions. The method is general and can be used
with other databases such as Inspec, WPI-WPIL, etc. . .
Introduction
During the process of decision in sciences, the production of a scientific commun-
ity, of an institution, is often analyzed in various ways. But, when the volume of
this production is too important (e.g. several hundreds of papers) it is very difficult
t o obtain a fast and realistic view of all the results.
We developped in our laboratory various softwares t o analyze the scientific litera-
ture from downloaded references coming from different databases. An infographic
analysis dealing with the chemical production of two important university communi-
ties in France will be presented in this paper.
Methodology
When an expert group, or a peer review, is concerned with several thousands of
items (e.g. the scientific production of a large group, or of several institutions loc-
ated in the same town, . . .) their fealings follow very often an irrational point of
view, where rumors, self-knowledge, polical interest, lobbies, play a large part.'
Scientometrics 17 (1989) Elsevier, Amstenlam-Oxford-New York- Tokyo
Akaddmiai Kiadd, Budapest
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
This attitude is very general, because it is almost impossible to have a synthetic
view of all the subjects, and to be able, in a minimum amount of time to make a
global, reliable, and unquestionable comparisons.
This is the reason we prompt us to develop a method which will fill this gap.
Interested in chemistry and physics, we choose the Chemical Abstracts database as
a source of informations for the purpose of this paper. This database indexes all the
scientific publications, patents, reports, . . . and references are available online, they
contain several fields such as authors, titles, indexterms, codes, etc.
The following example shows two references dealing with the oxidation of coal,
obtained from the host ORBIT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES.2
AN - CA05-87508(10)
TI - Electrochemical synthesis of humic acid and other partially oxidized carbon-
aceous materials
AU - Vaughan, Ronald J.
SO - U.S. 4592814, 12 pp. Cont.-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 496, 799, abandoned.,
86.06.03 PAT APP = 653664, 84.09.21, PAT PRTY = 496799 (IN US),
83.05.23, PCL 204178 PCL (IPC) C25B-003102A
OS - Chevron Research Co., USA
DT - P (Patent)
CC - SEC72-7; SEC5; SEC19; SEC49
AN - CA05-85796(10)
TI - Mechanism of potassium-catalyzed carbonlcarbon dioxide reaction
AU - Sams, D. A.; Shadman, Farhang
SO - AIChE J. (AICEAC), V 32 (7), p. 1 132-7, 1986, ISSN 000 1 1541
OS - Univ. Arizona, Dep. Chem. Eng., Tucson (AZ), USA, 85721
DT - J (Journal)
CC - SEC67-2
In this references, the CC field (category code field), is very interesting, since in
Chemical Abstracts the papers indexed are allocated in sections. There are 80 sec-
tions to cover all the chemistry. For the period of time analyzed the division re-
mains ~ o n s t a n t . ~ f ~ This field may contain one section or several sections. The first,
primary section deals with the main part of the work, and the others, secondary or
cross reference sections deal with side applications of the subject.
These fields (e.g. the CC) may be automatically analyzed, and will lead to:
- the main poles of research, using primary sections,
- the network of these poles with the other part of chemistry, using the secondary
sections.
The list of the 80 Chemical Abstracts sections are indicated in the Appendix.
I H. DOU et a].: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
The presentations of the results are made in 3D for the main research poles, and
in 2D for the research network of these poles. Because the network can be rather
complicated in some cases, a zoom function allows to isolate the network of one
pole if nece~sary.' 1~
Results
8
The references have been selected using the query:
1
MARSEILLE/CI with limitations by date, and the same for MONTPELLIER.
The production of these two Centres are indicated in Table 1.
9
Table 1
Comparison of the scientific productions of Marseille
and Montpellier between 1982 and 1986
Amount of references
Years
Marseille Montpellier
The research poles:
For the clarity of the presentation, we will present only the comparison between
year 1985 for Marseille and Montpellier. To illustrate the differences occurring with
time, the year 1978 will be also used for Marseille.
The Figures 1 and 2 represent the research poles of Marseille, (years 1978 and
1985) and the Figs 3 and 4 the research poles for Montpellier using two thresholds.
In the graphs, the sections are presented always at the same place, on a chess
board where section 1 is at the upper left, and section 80 at the lower right. The
frequency of the items (e.g. references with the same primary section) is the number
of publications appearing in the time interval. This is the height of the cylinders.
It is possible t o use a frequency filter, and t o consider various thresholds. Figures
3 and 4 show for the town of Montpellier the same analysis with a threshold above
0.5% and 2.5% of the overall number of references analyzed. This threshold can be
Scientometrics 17 (1 989) 63
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
Pole principal 22
22 physical organic chemistry
2 46
C
01
u
e
0
LL 23
0
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
Sections
Fig. 1. Research poles at Marseille, year 1978, using a threshol'd of 5
Pole principal 66
66 surface chemistry and colloids
Sections
Fig. 2. Research poles at Marseille, year 1985, using a threshold of 5
determined in various ways, for instance in per cent of the main research pole, etc . . .
but in our opinion, working in per cent of the total production seems to be the
best. This give a good indication of the scattering of the subjects, and of the per-
ception of these later by outside observers.
64 Scientornetrics I7 (1989)
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
Pole principal 2
2 mammalian hormones
Sections
Fig. 3. Research poles at Montpellier, year 1985, using a threshold of 2
Pole principal 2
2 mammal~an hormones
Sec t ~ons
Fig. 4. Research poles in Montpellier, year 1985, using a threshold of 15
The research network:
The network, when all the sections are considered, is too complicated to give
valuable informations. It can only be used to spot the main knots of the system and
to have an overview of the multidisciplinarity of the researchs. The use of the zoom
function is more accurate. Once a significant section is identified by its number,
Scientometrics 17 (1 989) 65
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
2 4
Fig. 5. Zoom of pole 1 (Marseille, 1982, Fig. 6. Zoom of pole 1 (Marseille 1985,
pharmacology) pharmacology)
Fig. 7 . Zoom of pole (Marseille 1985, Fig. 8. Zoom of pole 1 (Montpellier 1985,
Mammalian hormones) pharmacology)
either from the preceding graph or as a main research pole, it is possible to see the
network in which this pole is inserted. We analyzed automatically all the references
which have in the CC field two or more sections, and the program generate all the
bounds between sections. In the zoom function, when a pole is considered, only
references with this pole present as primary section are analyzed.
66 Scientometrics 17 (1 989)
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
Results are presented in Figs 5 to 9 where Figs 5 to 7 represent the zoom of
poles 1 (pharmacology) and 2 (mammalian hormones) for Marseille for years 1982
1985, and Figs 8 and 9 the zooms of poles 1 @harmacology) and 2 (mammalian
hormones) for Montpellier, for year 1985.
14
Fig. 9. Zoom of pole 2 (Montpellier 1985; mammalian hormones)
In the software there is also a frequency filter which allows t o select the research
poles above a certain threshold. In this paper, the threshold of 2 has been used, this
means that only primary sections (with one or more secondary sections present) ap-
pearing at least twice are considered t o built the network.
7
Discussion
The comparisons between the research poles is a mean to follow the trends in
research in Marseille and Montpellier. If the changes are small in short time intervals
(1, 3 years), they can be very drastic for a longer period. The examples of year 1978
and 1985 for Marseille are very significant. The analysis suggests the following ques-
tions:
- Why -a very strong pole such as Physical Organic Chemistry, disappeared between
1978 and 1985? is this due to the lack of equipment, labour force, incentive,. . .?
- Why poles 1 and 2 have had during the same period such a fast growth?
- What will be the consequences of this growth on the other parts of chemistry?
(When the networks are concerned, we can see that the number of bounds for pole
Scientornetrics 1 7 (1 989)
67
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
1 and 2 in Marseille are lower than for Montpellier. This can be explained because
a strong tradition in these 2 disciplines (pharmacology and mammalien hormones)
exists in Montpellier.
The fundamental question is t o know if and when pole 1 and 2 in Marseille will
have a better integration in the scientific network of chemistry. Analysis of years
1986 and 1987 begins t o provide an answer, since the density of the network in-
creases.
Analysis of all the research poles, as well as comparisons can be made if necessary
The goal of this paper is not to present all the possible applications of this method,
but t o reinforce the role of softwares which will help decision makers, committees,
councils, t o analyze in term of network, expertise, . . . the output of databases
providing meaningful codes. In this frame, various analysis have been performed in
- our laboratory using databases such as WPI-WPIL (Derwent codes, Patents), Biosis
(Biocodes), Predicast (Economy), Inspec (Physic).
Appendix
List of Chemical Abstracts sections
1. pharmacology
2 mammalian hormones
3 biochemical genetics
4 toxicology
5 agrochemical bioregulators
6 gelleral biochemistry
7 enzymes
8 radiation biochemistry
9 biochemical methods
10 microbial biochemistry
11 plant bioch'emistry
12 nonmammalian biochemistry
13 mammalian biochemistry
14 mammalian pathological biochemistry
15 irnmunochemistry
16 fermentation and bioindustrial chemistry
17 food and feed chemistry
18 animal nutrition
19 fertilizers, soils, and plant nutrition
Scientornetrics 17 (1989)
H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
20 history, education, and documentation
21 general organic chemistry
22 physical organic chemistry
23 aliphatic compounds
24 alicyclic compounds
25 benzene, its derivatives, and condensed benzoid compounds
26 biomolecules and their synthetic analogs
27 heterocyclic compounds (one hetero atom)
28 heterocyclic compounds (more than one hetero atom)
29 organometallic and organometalloidal compounds
30 terpenes and terpenoids
31 alkaloids
32 steroids
33 carbohydrates
34 amino acids, peptides, and proteins
35 chemistry of synthetic high polymers
36 physical properties of synthetic high polymers
37 plastics manufacture and processing
38 plastics fabrications and uses
39 synthetic elastomers and natural rubber
4 0 textiles
41 dyes, organic pigments, fluorescent brighteners, and photographic sensitizers
42 coating, inks, and related products
43 cellulose, lignin, paper, and other wood products
44 industrial carbohydrates
45 industrial organic chemicals, leather, fats, and waxes
46 surface-active agents and detergents
47 apparatus and plant equipment
48 unit operations and processes
49 industrial inorganic chemicals
50 propellants and explosives
5 1 fossil fuels, derivatives, and related products
52 electrochemical, radiational, and thermal energy technology
53 mineralogical and geological chemistry
54 extractive metallurgy
55 ferrous metals and alloys
56 nonferrous metals and alloys
57 ceramics
58 cement, concrete, and related building materials
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H. DOU et al.: TOOLS FOR DECISION MAKERS
59 air pollution and industrial hygiene
60 waste treatment and disposal
6 1 water
62 essential oils and cosmetics
63 pharmaceuticals
64 pharmaceutical analysis
65 general physical chemistry
66 surface chemistry and colloids
*.
67 catalysis, reaction kinetics, and inorganic reaction mechanisms
68 phase equilibriums, chemical equilibriums and solutions
1
69 thermodynamics, thermochemistry, and thermal properties
70 nuclear phenomena
i
7 1 nuclear technology 8 I
72 electrochemistry
73 optical, electron, and mass spectroscopy and other related properties ! 1
74 radiation chemistry, photochemistry, and photographic and other reprographii !
processes
75 crystallography and liquid crystals
76 electric phenomena
77 magnetic phenomena
78 inorganic chemicals and reactions
79 inorganic analytical chemistry
80 organic analytical chemistry
References
1. British-French seminar: The indicators for science and technology policy. December 1986,
London.
2. Orbit Information Technologies, Achiles House, Park Royal, Western av 30UA, London,
England. We like to thank very much the Orbit Information Technologies for its help in
providing our laboratory with online chemical informations datas.
3. Subject Coverage and Arrangement of Abstracts by Sections in Chemical Abstracts, Editor
American Chemical Society; 1982.
4. K. SHINICHIRO, Changes in sections of Chemical Abstracts, Shikoku Kokenkai Ho, 33 (1982)
2-6.
5. H. DOU, P. HASSANALY, . MESSIANE, Le traitemets des codes par micro-ordinateurs,
Symposium on "Les systemes d'information elaboree", Ile Rousse, September 1987, France.
6. H. DOU, P. HASSANALY, Mapping the Scientific network of patent and non-patent documents
from chemical abstracts for a fast scientometric analysis, World Patent information, 2 (1988, 1
Juin).
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